There are various odors around us, such as refrigerator odors, bad breath and odors from domestic animals. Because some of these odors are unpleasant to humans, a wide variety of approaches have been proposed to eliminate these odors. One such conventional deodorizing method is a method of adsorbing and eliminating the substance causing the offensive odor. Examples of deodorant substances used in such a method are activated carbon and catechin-containing tea.
However, activated carbon is disadvantageous in that it cannot sufficiently remove trace amounts of a substance, it cannot be added to foods for human consumption, and its use can cause environmental problems when activated carbon having a large amount of substance adsorbed thereon is discharged. In this regard, naturally occurring substances such as catechin are harmless toward the environment and can be blended with chewing gum and the like to eliminate bad breath. However, catechins do not provide a sufficient deodorant effect.